Belly Massages for Gas and Discomfort

Is your baby experiencing gas, tension in their body, or belly discomfort, and it's making feeding challenging?

Some signs that you might be seeing in your baby if they have gas or tension can be:

• Crying in obvious discomfort

• Their brow being furrowed during feeding or in between feeding

• Straining during passing gas or stooling, infrequent stooling, or constipation

• Arching their back during feeding or difficulty getting them positioned to feed well because of body tension

• Popping on and off while feeding

• Difficulty sleeping

Burping in babies is caused by small amounts of air being swallowed during a feed. It can be accompanied by a little bit of spit up, which is quite normal. Excessive amounts of spit up may be a sign of a bigger issue like reflux. Gas is caused from bubbles being formed during digestion as bacteria ferments and digests carbohydrates. Air in the intestines is expelled when your baby has gas. Breastfed babies usually burp and pass gas pretty easily all on their own with minimal help. 

Watch full demo video on rotational burping here!

If your baby needs a little extra help to burp, give rotational burping a try. You can either set your baby on your lap against your body or you can turn your baby sideways and support their back and the front of their body. Then rotate in a circular motion. This helps your baby's abdominal muscles do the work to get that burp out.

Excess air being swallowed during a feeding can happen if they don't have a great seal at the breast or the bottle. This excessive air can create gas bubbles and make your baby unsettled.

Sometimes just positional changes can help. Side-lying bottle feeding is a great way for your baby to be supported against your body. It also gives your baby a little more control over feeding. Any milk that pools in the side-lying position is going to be towards their cheek. Unlike

in this position where milk is going to pool more towards their throat area and excess air may be swallowed.

When you're positioning your baby at your breast you want to think about them being in a position where they have nice full body contact with the front of their body against your body as well as them being able to elevate their chin. If your baby’s chin is tucked in more towards their chest, it can exacerbate the amount of air that your baby takes in and cause discomfort. A good example of this is when you drink a glass of water. We want a little bit of extension in our chin and neck to be able to drink comfortably. 

Pictured above is a great movement to do before latching your baby to help them relax, get more length, and be able to extend better rather than be in a flexed position. Hold your baby against your body, then take the heel of your hand and place it right above the diaper line. Gently move your hand like you’re kneading a ball of dough. This can help loosen up their hip area, as well as lengthen their spine. 

Your baby's stooling can give us a lot of information about what's going on with digestion. If your baby is constipated, that causes a lot of belly discomfort and it can make it hard to feed, just like it would for us. Remember, common isn't always normal. Humans are meant to eliminate daily and your baby should be stooling several times a day. If they're not, you may want to explore why. A couple of common reasons can be food sensitivities, which can cause gas and belly pains for your baby, and it can be a reason that they're popping on and off during feeding. It's not always solved just by eliminating foods. We need to look at the bigger picture of the gut microbiome and gut health, and it can take a little bit of time to notice some changes. 

Oversupply and forceful letdown is another reason that they can have some discomfort and excess gas. Most babies do really love a fast flow of milk, just like we do when we go to take a drink of water and we're thirsty. But sometimes that can be really forceful and bothersome. Sometimes excess pumping or milk collecting with suction can cause oversupply.

Here are some at-home massages that you can utilize right away to help ease that

discomfort for your baby:

Watch full demo video here!

Place your baby down on a blanket. Belly massages should start from the belly button and move down towards the legs. The first thing that we're going to do is have our hands resting on our baby's belly. Sometimes a little bit of vibration can help. You may want to take a couple

of deep breaths so that you relax and that will help your baby relax as well. The first stroke we're going to do is hand over hand. We're working from the belly button down towards the leg and we're using our full hand, not just our fingers and not the heel of our hand. So we're just going hand over hand from belly to legs. Repeat this stroke six times.

Watch full demo video here!

Next, we're going to take our baby's legs down by the calves, avoiding the knee joint, and we're going to just gently offer some pressure into the belly, holding for about a count of six, and we can bounce their legs back down and repeat this, holding their knees into their belly and bouncing the legs back down. Repeat this move six times. 

Watch full demo video here!

The next stroke is a little tricky, but as you practice, you'll get it in no time. Your left hand is going to be like the sun and you're going to make a circle on their belly. Your right hand is going to come in and make a crescent moon shape from about 10 o 'clock to 5 o 'clock. As your left hand makes a full circle, the right hand comes in for the crescent moon. Once you have the full circle motion with your left hand down, you can then add in your right hand to make the crescent moon from 10 o 'clock to five o 'clock. 

Babies love to move. Their muscle patterns are formed through their movement, so we want to allow a lot of time for play on the floor, as well as things like babywearing or being on your body and held and rocked, humming and singing to them, which also helps relax their nervous system. You might also consider their nighttime environment. Swaddles and sleep suits can often reinforce tension in their body so limiting them can be helpful.

Probiotic strains like L. rhamnosus GG (LGG) or L. reuteri (found in our Organic Probiotic Drops) are some of the most studied for babies and young children. Here’s how they can support your baby's gut microbiome:

 Help balance “good” and “bad” bacteria in the gut

Support a healthy digestive system and help with occasional gas and spit-ups

 Strengthen the immune system (your baby's first line of defense!)

 LGG is one of the most studied probiotics for treating and preventing diarrhea in babies, especially diarrhea caused by infections or after antibiotic use.

 Some early research suggests probiotics like L. reuteri can reduce crying time in colicky babies.

You may need to consult with a holistic IBCLC if you find that you need a little bit more assistance with resolving issues of gas, belly discomfort or body tension

for your baby. They can offer individualized strategies based on your situation and

your baby's strain patterns.